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Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Writer's Life: A Few of My Favorite Things at AWP; Briefly

This was my fifth time attending AWP and the first time I can honestly say I loved it. Here, in no particular order are some of my favorite moments:

1. Poets on TV. My first night in Denver I arrived at the hotel around 9 pm - a tad too late and too tired to meet up with friends. Instead I retreated to my wonderful room and leafed through my roommate, Lana's AWP schedule. I clicked on the TV only to find a Hyett poetry only channel. I watched Mark Doty, Linda Pastan, and Naomi Shihab Nye perform favorites at the Dodge Festival; I watched Emily Dickinson's poetry in newly made animation, and Marie Howe read from her New York City apartment. What an amazing world it would be if we could click on the TV and find poets there to entertain us. Thank you who ever decided to run an hour long loop of poets for the conference. This started everything off on the right note: poetry matters.

2. Shameless Self Promotion. No, this is not what I engaged in -- at least I really hope not! It is the name of a fantastic panel conducted by Margaret Hasse, Todd Boss and two other Minneapolis area writers. Their session deserves a whole post of its own -- but for now let me just say two things I learned that have stayed inside my head. "If you gauge the success of your effort by book sales you are bound to be disappointed" (the panel included fiction and non-fiction writers, too). And the corollary to that statement, "Do what feeds you." I also loved that Todd Boss went to his favorite independent coffee shop and spoke to the owner "You have great coffee. Can I be the Poet Laureate of the coffee shop?" The takeaway idea: find your constituency.

3. Leaving a lipstick kiss on Oliver's cheek. Catching up with some friends and making new ones is the point here. I ran into Stacey Brown, Brian Turner, and Oliver de la Paz in the book fair on Friday morning. In the course of five minutes we bumped into each other by chance. This may be my absolutely favorite part of AWP - happy accidents. I got to see Stacey's face as she hugged Brian tight - having not seen him in some time. I got to meet many people that I only knew from their blogs and from Facebook. I got to feel more connected to the world and proud of the tribe of poets that I claim as my own. They are generous, they are talented, and their spirit is alive and well.

4. White Pine Press book signing. Honestly, I'd been dreading this part. Would anyone come by? Last week, Dennis gently told me to tell my friends about the signing and he hinted (very kindly) that I should not expect long lines. There are literally half a dozen things going on at AWP at one time that I want to be at -- and I know that holds true for others. Seattle friends see me all the time, I knew they wouldn't be by and I understood. And yet, people did come! Mary Brown, my old student from Antioch, Tim Mayo a poet from Vermont that I'd never met, and Susan Elbe and Sandy Longhorn from the blogosphere all came by and bought books, too! By the end of the conference, Dennis had sold out of The Alchemist's Kitchen! Okay -- he was wise enough to not ship a container full -- but still!

So what did I learn? Why was this time so much better than past years? My great roommate the poet Lana Ayers and I could debrief each night about our day (have a roommate!), set a schedule of the sessions you want to go to before the conference begins, and leave yourself open to happy accidents. Most of all, I relaxed and was more comfortable in my skin this time. This is my tribe and I am glad to be here at this moment in time - poetry is alive and well -- at least in Denver!

I enjoyed reading this post. It would be grand to turn on a tv and get a channel devoted to poetry. If that existed, I'd consider watching tv again. The poets you named are some of my favorites. I also appreciate very much your takeaway about constituencies: so important.

Susan Rich is the author
of four collections of poetry, most recently, Cloud Pharmacy and The Alchemist’s Kitchen, which was a Finalist for the Foreword
Prize and the Washington State Book Award. Her other books include Cures Include Travel (2006)
and The Cartographer’s Tongue /
Poems of the World (2000) which won the PEN USA Award for Poetry and
the Peace Corps Writers Book Award. She is the recipient of awards from
Artist’s Trust, 4Culture, The Times Literary Supplement of London, Seattle
Mayors Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Fulbright Foundation. Susan's poems have been published in many journals including: Antioch Review, Gettysburg Review, Harvard Review, and The Southern Review.

Currently, she is Professor of creative writing and film studies at Highline
Community College. Susan also works as the poetry editor for The Human journal based in
Istanbul, Turkey and along with Kelli Russell Agodon is founder of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for
Women.Along with Brian Turner and
Jared Hawkley, she is editor of the anthology, The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders published
by McSweeney’s and the Poetry Foundation (2013). Susan lives in Seattle,
WA and writes in the House of Sky, a few blocks from the Puget Sound.